Creative (Pre)Writing for Non-Creative Writers

I am not a creative writer.

I mean, I'm creative. I went to a youth conservatory for visual arts in high school. I can play "Colors of the Wind" on the piano. I'm crafty-as-all-get-out.

And since having children, I've gotten pretty good at making terrifying sea monsters with Play-Doh:

ARE YOU NOT AMAZED?

But I am not a creative writer. Poetry. Fiction. Novels. It's all magic and wonder to me. It is something I simply can. not. do.

Well, that's not entirely true. I do it a lot, but not for an outside audience. Instead, I dabble in creative writing to get my mind ready to tackle other tasks. Playing with creative writing prompts for 15 or 20 minutes helps me transition from the chaos that is my real life (have you ever tried to write a conference proposal with a 4 year old in the room? Don't) so that I can actually think. I can also use silly prompts as a way to motivate myself when I face a writing task I'm not looking forward to; I'll avoid things I dislike like the plague, but I can usually convince myself to write about silly things for a few minutes. Once I've started writing (even though it's not serious), transitioning to the writing I really need to do isn't as difficult.

Here are a few of my favorite creative writing prompts

• Making Mythology: Explain why some aspect of everyday life is the way it is in the style of a myth, fable or creation story. How did the rock get to look like an elephant? Why do strawberries have seeds? What mystical Armenian immortals birthed the forefathers of the Kardashian clan?
• Man Up!: Most of the time, manifestos are serious documents that declare a person's (or people's) views or intentions. There's Mina Loy's feminist manifestos (and Valerie Solanis' even more radical S.C.U.M. Manifesto). There's the Communist Manifesto of Engels and Marx. One of the great things about manifestos is how much they push and play with language and hyperbole; if Solanis' manifesto is an indicator, the more over the top the manifesto, the better. I give myself 15 minutes to write passionate, exaggerated treatises on tiny things that don't matter: turn signals, how to sit on a couch, what color highlighter to choose.
• Rewriting History (with Zombies): self explanatory.
• Limited Letters: Decide how do limit your letters (no Ws? Only words that start with consonants?), then describe a person, place or moment following the limit.
• Writing Wikipedia:  Choose a random article on Wikipedia. Read the title (nothing else!) and write an encyclopedia entry for it. (caveat: with this prompt, there's the risk of falling into a wikipedia hole and spending 2 hours reading about obscure animals--oh hai, Jamaican Coney).

So, what about you? Do you incorporate creative writing in your writing routine? Got any prompts I can add to my arsenal?

Inspiration & Connection

Clustering Exercise

Clustering is similar to another process called Brainstorming. Clustering is something that you can do on your own, or with friends or classmates to find inspiration in the connection between ideas. The process is similar to free-writing. Jot down ideas on a piece of paper or on the blackboard. Don't allow that ugly self-censor to intrude and say that your idea (or anyone else's) is dumb or useless. Write it down anyway.

In Clustering, you jot down only words or very short phrases.

• After you've generated some ideas, use linking lines as connections suggest themselves.

• Use different colored pens as ideas seem to suggest themselves in groups or subgroups.

• Don't cross anything out because you can't tell where an idea will lead you. When you get a few ideas written down, you can start to group them, using colored circles or whatever.

• One strategy that may also work for you is to suggest ideas that are main thoughts or supportive ideas by using printing or longhand script. This is only an organizational tool. You can also use asterisks, stars, smily faces, high-lighting pens or whatever system appeals to you. So long as you know what it means, the symbols will work to cue you about main ideas and the ones that act as support. 

• Don't bother to organize too neatly, though, because that can impede the flow of great ideas. This is an idea building strategy and not a finished paper.

Figure 1: example of a clustering exercise

Points to Ponder:

Can you draw additional links between concepts?

Are there ideas listed above that you'd reject as irrelevant or too much to deal with?

Can you think of some ideas (or a whole set of ideas) that should have been included but weren't? 

Should they be included in your essay?

Do you think you could write an essay using the ideas clustered from group discussion?

Understanding the Writing Assignment

Before we begin writing, or even begin thinking about writing an assignment, it is imperative that we absolutely understand the assignment. Without understanding the assignment a student risks great failure even after putting forth much effort.

For example:

In an undergraduate history class, an instructor assigned a paper in which the students had to argue whether or not the U.S. Colonies had legitimate reasons to start a revolution. Many students turned in papers discussing the accomplishments of the United States, arguing that had there not been a successful revolution the great nation we know today would not exist. These students all received failing grades. One student left the classroom crying.

In this situation, a large percentage of the class's student body misunderstood the writing assignment. The instructor asked for an argument constructing reasons that exemplified an understanding of the conflict leading up to the American Revolution. All facts concerning the United States post-revolution are irrelevant in such an argument.

Although one can assume many of the students put forth a considerable amount of effort in their work. because they did not understand the assignment, the work and effort could not be rewarded.

This situation is far more common than we may initially realize. To avoid it there are simple steps we must take.

The first is to keep the handout describing the assignment. Professors often go into great detail to explain and construct the assignment on handouts for students. Reading this handout and comprehending the instructions are essential. Any questions a student has must be asked as soon as possible. This will allow the student to begin to construct a paper that is in accordance with the assignment.

Any digression from the assignment, even in the preliminary stages of thinking about what to write, can be disastrous and can lead to unnecessary stress and last minute revisions.

We should also consider discussing the assignment with fellow classmates. Casual conversation about assignments is often the best way to discover how other students grasp the concept the teacher is describing. When we learn out peer's strategies in regards to the assignment, we often gain a better understanding of it. Often, through discussions such as these, students discover new approaches and questions to ask about the paper.

Anther approach we can take is to seek advice from the EIU Writing Center. There writing consultants can help writers brainstorm and work through problems writing assignments pose. This approach can provide students with much needed confidence as they begin to writing their paper.

We can also speak with the professor. This may be the best suggestion to consider. Once a professor is aware of our approach, he or she can offer suggestions to narrow the focus or pinpoint the direction we should follow. Conferencing with professors limits miscommunication and allows students to move ahead with the assignment in complete confidence.

 

The Fact of the Matter is....

...that you need an argument.

The word argument gives me a serious case of the heebie jeebies.  I was raised in an old fashioned home where we were taught never ever to argue.  Instead, we were told to smile politely and do as we were told,  even if we disagreed. If we disagreed, we were grounded.  Forever.  Actually, I think I still might be grounded for the great Smurfette fiasco of 1984...

Yes, my parents did end up raising extremely polite children, but they also ended up with children who are terrified of debating and arguing - which makes me wonder if I should perhaps be changing my major from English to basket weaving.

Because when doing many types of communicating, it is imperative that you have an argument. Otherwise you are just talking to talk, or writing to write and that makes me think of those evil Furbee dolls that have made a recent comeback.  Those things just talk and talk and talk. My little sister received one for Christmas back in the late 90s, and I think it's still talking, about what I'm not sure: moral of the story - don't be a Furbee!

But I digress.

Woe betide the student who writes a paper lacking an argument. Many "add comment" icons will be clicked by professors of all disciplines, and red marks will be made at the end of an introduction that is missing an argument or boasts a weak argument.

I will admit that when I first started writing I did not understand why an argument was necessary.  I thought, "Well, I just have this assignment to write...and information to give.  That's all I need."

Silly, silly, silly.

And probably a reason why I struggled reaching those 5-7 page length requirements.  'Cause it turns out that if you have a strong argument, thus a strong thesis statement, page length requirements are a walk in the park.

No foolin'.

This past semester I had the wonderful, and I truly mean that, opportunity to teach an Enlish 101 composition course at a local community college.  What troubled most of my students at the beginning of the semester was reaching those 4-6 pages I was forcing them to write (it was for their own good!).  Now I have been writing 16-20 page papers for quite awhile, so I couldn't help but laugh a little (inwardly of course) about the cries of despair my students were voicing over the page length requirement.

But I quickly stopped that inward giggle when I saw their first papers, and I understood exactly what the problem was.

They were writing their papers based on a simple fact, not an argument.

In the first unit my students were assigned a paper that had them choose an old Grimm's Fairy tale, analyze it, and then inform their audience whether the story was a positive moral tale for youth or one that should be quickly shooed back into the dark ages.

Here are some example thesis statements I saw in their papers:

• Snow White is a classic fairy tale, but it has negative themes.
• Hansel and Gretel is a sad story where children are abandoned and hope is lost.

What is wrong with those statements? Well, for starters, one of them is a total slam on Hansel and Gretel...

In all seriousness, each of these statements are simply facts.

Fact: Snow White is definitely a classic.  And indeed there are negative themes in that story (what with the Prince kissing the dead girl and all...).

Fact: Hansel and Gretel are definitely abandoned. There exists a feeling of hopelessness in that story (unless you think finding a candy house is hopeful...and you might have a solid good point there).

Although these are interesting facts, it would be very hard to write a good 4-6 page paper using these as thesis statements.  After all, your thesis statement is your bottom line and also your jumping off point.  Once you have a solid thesis statement, things fall into place much more easily. And a thesis statement is basically a fancy group of words that describe your very important argument.

The word 'argument', as defined by the OED, means "A statement or fact advanced for the purpose of influencing the mind" ('argument', n).

Did you see that?  A fact that has been advanced. So basically in order to build a solid argument, you need to unpack that fact.

And that is what I helped my students to do.

What we started out doing was writing as many facts down about the chosen fairy tales as we could.

The student who had chosen Snow White and had said that it had negative themes ended up writing a list like this:

Wicked Step-mother = a bad stereotype
Beauty is emphasized as being what makes a person important
Necrophilia
Ostricization of the other
Strong Masculine themes abound - Prince kisses Snow and she awakes = A man saves the day

After reading through that list, I can never read or watch Snow White with whimsy again.  Now it has become a very depressing and dark tale for me.  And that is because my student combined all of those facts into a strong argument (and then a very strong paper).

Here is what she came up with:

Snow White, although considered a classic fairy tale and immortalized by Disney, is not the happy romantic tale everyone thinks it is and the story itself includes themes of banishment, discourages feminism, and includes a stereo-typical evil step-mother.  Although often read to children as a heart warming romantic story, Snow White instead impacts children negatively.

No, it's not perfect.  But I reckon it is a stronger argument than what she had written before, and when she revised her paper (because revision is cool, yo!) she not only reached her page limit...but this time while reading her paper I never once felt as if she was padding it to get to the 4-6.  She produced a solid, well written, and well organized paper.

So, from then on a lot of my students started writing fact sheets about their chosen topic. After those students, who were all so totally rad, had written down a bunch of facts they would string them together to form an argument.

If you are like me and the word argument sends you into fits of worry and nail biting, simply think of it as it is defined "a statement or fact advanced."  Unpack those facts and ask them to stay a while. Hang out with them a bit and see what you come up with.

Then put that strong argument together and remember that although arguing often has negative connotations, it shouldn't. It is necessary. Because your argument is what you think, and what you think is important...right?  Right.

Arguments are necessary.

So just smile and do it politely (or my dad is gonna ground you).

Freewriting: Writing Your Way Off the Struggle Bus

Is your mind full of the various assignments, final papers, projects, and exams quickly approaching? Are you attempting to start those papers, but find yourself unable to concentrate on the task at hand without thinking of the ten other things you also need to do?

I feel your pain. I have been suffering from the too-many-things-to-do-in-too-little-time syndrome for the past couple weeks. I am pressed for time and pressed for original ideas. 

So how can we clear the clutter and get to the good stuff?

Freewrite!

Freewriting is a great strategy for getting all your ideas out on paper, even if some of those ideas are, “I wonder what I’m going to do this weekend?” or “I have no ideas.” 

Here is how I describe it sometimes to students who come into the Writing Center – word vomit. Just get it all out and you will feel better for it just like when you have a stomach ache and feel nauseous. 

Sit down and write whatever comes into your mind, and when you hit a road block in your mind, pick a phrase like “struggle bus” and write it over and over until that thought is interrupted by another one.

Focused freewriting is a more specific type of freewriting. You have your topic, you sit down, and write on it or one side of your argument non-stop until you have nothing else to say about it. Then, do the same for the other side of the argument. (If you need a source to help you, follow the link for "Generating Ideas" for some strategies to get started.)

Once all your thoughts and ideas are out on paper, you can read through what you have and see what you can glean from your freewriting to use in your paper. 

Who knows?  You just might surprise yourself and kill two birds with one stone this way: you work on your paper, and you might work through a nagging issue in your mind or at least get it out of your mind long enough to concentrate on what you have to accomplish.

Writing for a Deadline

You get your assignment. You have to write ten pages in X amount of days to finish it.

You stare at the prompt and have no idea where to start. You’re overwhelmed and don’t know how you’re going to get it all done, especially when you take into consideration all of your other homework.

So how do you do it?

The solution is much simpler than you might think. Take the number of pages and the number of days you have to get it done and distribute the work accordingly.

If you have five pages due in five days, do a page a day and it will be done. If you have ten pages and five days to write them, do two pages a day and it will be done.

Of course, this doesn’t include time for research. So in the case of a research paper or project, spend a day doing all your research and organizing your data, then start on the writing.

             

By doing a little at a time, it will ease your guilty conscience for putting it off until the last possible moment and allow you to:

1) be productive and allow you to say you’ve at least started and

2) have a life outside of school

           

The moral of this story here is this one: doing a little bit at a time eases the mind and allows time to be managed and distributed among other homework and for you to participate in whatever social activities you deem worthy of a homework break.

When is a Paper Finished?

People generally worry about beginning an endeavor, not just when writing a paper in college, but when doing anything challenging at all. Which step is the most strenuous and perilous of any journey? 

The first, of course. 

The logic behind this thinking could be dubious, but it does have a certain clichéd wisdom to it as well. Imagine running around a track: once you take that first step, you feel a certain lubrication in your joints. You feel your muscles twitch and scintillate. This beneficial process happens very quickly. It is as if the momentum of your first stride is transferred to the subsequent stride, until, eventually, a person finds it more difficult to arrest his progress than to maintain it. But, in the beginning of an endeavor, there is no momentum to transfer to the first stride, one must move without the aid of any previous movement. (This may also partially explain why getting out of bed in the afternoon often seems impossible).

Writers have a special relationship with the difficulty of beginning to write. The blanching dullness of the empty sheet of paper or the blinking cursor has driven many students and many novelists, as well, to the brink of if not madness, then at least to brink of f-word formulation.

The phrase "writer's block" may not create such a gruesome image, but when I think about it what I imagine is a beheading, or to be more specific a mock-beheading. I envision an executioner, his face concealed behind his mask, his guffaws concealed behind nothing. "You're a writer, are you?" 

I nod meekly; I may articulate a monosyllable with more bass in my voice than usual, attempting to give off the impression of heroic masculinity. But however I choose to vary my affirmation, he proceeds by setting his ax down and then calling over to his assistant who dutifully brings onto the platform a square hunk of wood with the words "writer's block" burned into the side. 

The actors then assume their positions: the executioner on my flank, me on my knees with my head resting on the "writer's block." I await the ax, but it doesn't fall. Rather, the instrument stubbornly defies its manipulator, keeping the entire ensemble poised in a diorama of absurdity.  

As you can see, I have a keen appreciation for the psychological difficulties that confront the writer before the writing has begun. However, I also have a keen appreciation for the process that follows the writer as he writes, especially the moment when he decides to cease writing. 

How does a writer decide when a piece of writing is finished, when his work is done? 

Many students may initially find the question ridiculous. It’s obvious that the piece of writing is finished when the word count reads 501 or 756 or 1001. Respecting the word count limit of a professor is necessary, but a student should be wary of allowing the stipulated limit to dominate their thoughts. 

It seems safe to assume that some students have a more complex mechanism for determining when their work is finished rather than merely checking its length against the requirements stated in the assignment sheet.  

I wonder how this mechanism functions in these students. Presumably, like most writers, these students have to balance the desire to perfect their work with their desire to keep a deadline. They can’t spend years perfecting an essay that is due next Friday. And yet, despite the temporal constraints that bind the writer, a certain amount of perfecting is possible. 

On the surface, grammar mistakes can be corrected in the aftermath of a tempest of composition, punctuation can be made ideal according to one of the guides which ratify such things, perhaps a repetition of words or phrases will be discovered and then omitted. All these improvements help a paper become more perfect, but do such improvements make a paper perfect enough to print and staple and then forget about? 

Is a student finished working on a paper after he has satisfied these basic proofreading techniques, or does he continue to think about what he’s already written and what may be expressed in better words? 

Unlike other endeavors one might prosecute during a lifetime, say, climbing Mount Everest, the completion of a written work is an abstract achievement. You know when you've reached the summit of Mt. Everest; there are signs hammered into the ice. Climbers know when to retrieve their cameras and pose in celebration. Writers, on the other hand, cannot know where the summit is. If any signage exists, it certainly isn't hammered into the ice. In other words the mountain climber can always exclaim: "I'm there! I've done it!" Whereas the writer, poor benighted creature, can only murmur: "Am I there?"    

In a sense, deciding when a paper is finished presents a writer with a different kind of inertial problem. In the beginning, a writer has no momentum to transfer to the composition of his next sentence, which leads to anxiety. 

In the end, a writer has so much momentum that he may not know when to stop himself. This lack of knowledge can lead to a different kind of “writer’s block,” one which doesn’t get the same respect, but can in certain cases lead to similar amounts of anxiety.     

Using Writing Anxiety The Jack Black Way

Just yesterday I heard a rebroadcast of NPR’s Terry Gross interviewing Jack Black on “Fresh Air.” Black discussed his high anxiety levels before his high school musical performances to his movie roles of today. In fact, Black almost turned down his breakthrough part for the movie High-Fidelity because of his anxieties.   

However, before deciding to turn down the role he harkened back to his high school stage fright days where he learned to harness that anxiety and “act his ass off” (Black), which is exactly what he did in High-Fidelity. I think this is common for actors, but it can also be common for writers.

Writing the first words are often the most difficult. Writing anxiety is normal. I’m here to say that it is O.K. I would even argue that without a little paper-fright you might not be doing something right. 

There is a way, however, to harness that anxiety in the way Jack Black does, and not in a way that is detrimental to the author and the work.

Just like acting, with writing most of the work comes before the show. Black had to memorize his lines before hitting the stage, even in high school. He had to consider his approach, his audience, where to stand, and the tone of his voice. 

Writers have to do make these decisions as well, in a sense. But, unlike actors, writers do not have to memorize their lines or even their thoughts when considering a paper.  We have the amazing luxury to write ideas down and come back to them later. 

For example: If a teacher gives the assignment of writing your own obituary, you may find yourself experiencing a massive writer’s block the day before the assignment is due.

However, had you completed just a little pre-stage work and kept a thought journal from the moment the assignment was given, you may have a wealth of ideas. In fact, your first thought after learning about the assignment may have been, “This will be easy. This class is going to kill me!” This idea may seem irrelevant at first, but keeping records of ideas may lead you to a creative take on the assignment, say “Death by Composition.”   By keeping a thought journal on this very idea and jotting down brief ideas of your approach, your audience, and your stance, by the time due date rolls around, writers’ block is avoided. All that is left to do is to “[write] your ass off” just like Jack Black!

OWL-ternative Online Sources, Part 4

And so we come to part four of our brief series on alternative Online Writing Labs. I hope you've had a hoot [strained laughter] reading our examinations of various OWLs. Today, I will examine Colorado State University's "Writing@CSU," a site I'm convinced is going above and beyond the call of OWL duty in what it offers to students.

Aesthetically speaking, the front page is a welcome sight. The menus have forest green backgrounds that compliment the Rocky Mountain vistas that comprise the banner at the top of the page. The font is a friendly sans-serif that lures in the writer without making him or her think this will be some dry instructional website.

Instructionally speaking, CSU's OWL offers up guidance on "Preparing to Write," "Starting to Write," and other aspects of the writing process. These articles are divided into further subcategories relating to "reading and writing as social acts" as well as attention to audience. For those who want to step it up from website guides to full-fledged textbooks, Writing@CSU offers "open-access textbooks" which are freely available to both students and teachers, regardless if you attend CSU or not.

What caught my eye most about Writing@CSU is their "Writing Tools" section in which they offer a built-in word processor as well as an Outliner tool "to organize your ideas for a draft" or Bibliography tool to "keep track of your sources." While most students have access to Microsoft Word at home or in a library, this might provide a nice alternative to traveling with a flash drive. Unfortunately, all of these requires an account to access. Despite this restriction, you're not required to be a student to use them.

Writing@CSU does a lot more than I've yet to see in an OWL, but it's not completely perfect. Navigating its articles can be more of a hassle as its Writing Guides are split into subtopics and further subtopics. That being said, I still think other OWLs could take a page from CSU's book and offer organizational tools that will help students put together solid papers.

Organizing Chaos

Your brain has just spattered a hot mess of information onto the page.  You've managed to defeat the White Screen of Doom and produce a plethora of delicious information for the nearest discourse-starved academic.  But there's a problem.  You're not sure whether it flows together properly.  You've just spent a significant amount of time on it, so your brain reels at the thought of going through it all again.  It makes sense to you, but how can you tell if it will for your reader?  Is your information in the right place?  Does your thought progression make sense?  Do these sentences bounce around your main points too rapidly?

Stop!  Don't tear your hear out!  (It's beautiful, really.  What kind of shampoo are you using?)

There's no need to fear, my caffeine-addled friend.  There are several ways to ensure your organization is up to par, regardless of what stage of the writing process you're in.

Pre-Writing Organization:

Outlines: Yes, I know, I know!  This is probably as obvious as one could get with organization.  But even though they sometimes feel more like a bane than a boon, taking the time to outline your main points will always help you keep things organized.  It forces you to break things down into bite-sized chunks, and if you're someone like me who really enjoys headings, it gives you little visual compartments for your ideas.

Are they annoying?  Do they take some time?  Will they occasionally make you want to injure small, fluffy animals?  Yes, yes, and hopefully not.  But the initial time investment will pay off in the end.  Thirty minutes up front can save you hours of copying, pasting, and revising when you're dealing with a complicated topic


Idea Mapping:  Meet Outlining's smaller, lesser-known, sexier cousin.  Idea mapping is great when you're trying to find ways that various ideas or concepts are connected.  It's pretty simple.  You start with a word or phrase that you plan on discussing.  Then, you write down other words or phrases that are connected to it, drawing lines between the ones that happen to be directly related.  I might start with "poodle" and follow that with "urinates on shoes" and "eats homework".  From there, I may make a new word -- "irritating" -- which could very well have lines drawn to "poodle", "urinates on shoes", and "eats homework".  Voila!  We've got a connection!  I've discovered their tendency to defile my footwear and devour my schoolwork are both elements of frustration.  I'd likely include both of these ideas in my "Poodles are Evil" segment.

While idea mapping is often used as a brainstorming tool as well, strong visual learners may find it more helpful to literally see the ideas spread out before them.  From there, you can start forging connections and establishing which ideas should be clustered together.

Topic Clustering: Sometimes you're completely unsure of what order your ideas should go in, and outlining really isn't doing the job.  Instead of lighting your hair on fire and leaping from the nearest tall window, try topic clustering.  Divide a piece of paper into columns, labeling each column with a single word or phrase that represents one of the main points you're working with.  For example, if you were writing an analytic essay comparing the elements of a book to changes made in its movie interpretation, you might end up with the following topics:  characters, setting, plot.  Now you've got a place to work with when you start thinking about the various changes between the two mediums.  And, naturally, as you continue to group your ideas, you may come up with new topics or subdivide into more specific ones.  This method essentially gives you the seeds for your body paragraphs.

Post-Writing Organization

Already finished with the paper?  Working with a hot mess of disjointed paragraphs?  No biggie.  There are plenty of ways to get those working for you, too.

Topic Sentences:  How many of you had the idea of a topic sentence drilled into your head since you were old enough to write one of those abominable five-paragraph essays?  Now, I'm not here to say that every paragraph should start with a sentence that explicitly says "HEY!  HERE I AM!  LISTEN DUDE, THIS IS WHAT WE'RE GONNA TALK ABOUT, OKAY?"  However, you should be able to go through a paragraph and find a sentence or two that gives a good idea of what's covered.  (If that's an impossible task, you may have too many ideas fighting for your paragraph)  Writing down each of your topic sentence(s) can give you an idea of what your paper's main points are.  Once you have those in front of you without all the other words vying for your attention, finding a reasonable, logical way to order them is much easier.  In some ways, it's kind of like a retroactive outline.  However, you're using words and phrases you've already constructed, so looking for similarities, links, and transitions won't be nearly as difficult.

Paragraph Structuring: If each paragraph is a hot mess, it's sometimes useful to set up some kind of a structure or frame to use for your ideas.  Look at the kind of information required and find a consistent way to represent it within your writing.  For instance, in the above example with the analysis between a book and its movie adaptation, let's say you have to compare, contrast, and analyze the elements that changed within the movie.  Your paragraph structure may end up something like this:

• Element being discussed (i.e. characters)
• How it was handled in the book
• Quotation
• How it was handled in the movie
• Scene example
• Was this an effective change?  If so, why/how?

This gives you a consistent approach to each paragraph, ensuring that the reader falls into your rhythm.  This also has the added bonus of making your paper flow much better.  "Flow" is usually a fancy-pants term for readability, and the more familiar constructions your reader runs into, the easier he or she will be able to navigate them.

Think about it.  If you know the kind of information that's coming up, you can anticipate it and subconsciously put yourself in the proper frame of mind.  You don't have to constantly stop, back-track, and pull out your GPS to figure out where the paper is headed next, because the writer has established a comfortable pattern for you.  Obviously, you don't want to write the exact same thing, or your paper is just as likely to be used as a pillow as anything else.  Still, structure within your paper will help both you as the writer and anyone who reads it in the future.

Playing to an Audience of ... None?

In my past life, which means before kids--a time that I have to admit I struggle to remember, I was an actor.

The company that I was a part of performed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights and would then also have a Sunday matinee. It became very easy to know what kind of audience to expect on each of the performances.

Thursday nights the crowd would be alive because it was close to the weekend, and their hopes were high! Friday nights crowds were always snoozers because the people were always too tired from the week at work to react to anything anymore. The audience on Saturday night was always fun. After all they had relaxed all day and were in weekend mode. And Sundays audience were referred to as the "Blue Hairs" and would seldom react to anything at all but generally seemed pleased.

As actors we had to adjust the way that we performed so that it would compliment the blah or excited audience. This was easy to achieve, and we all did it effortlessly, and this mindset has transitioned into how I adjust my voice for an audience while writing scholarly papers.

However, this task is not easy for some people, and I have heard students in the Writing Center complain about it. It goes something like this, "A new semester rolls around and BOOM - new teachers! New expectations! Crap! After I just mastered writing the way my professor wanted. Now I have this new teacher, and I can't figure out what he wants, and when I sit down to write everything that I write just sounds like garbage. I know I'm not a bad writer, I just can't seem to write to this audience." That is when I say, "Well, then...forget about your audience."

Which is generally followed by a long pause and blank stare.

FORGET ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE? Really? Isn't that a rather bold move?

At first, I thought that it was, and I worried that my first year writing professor might have somehow sensed me saying this and had a mild stroke. But then I came across a very famous article by Peter Elbow, and if you don't know who he is...FIND OUT...he is all sorts of amazing, and I have a mild crush on him. The article is titled "Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience."

In this article Elbow suggests that "When we realize that an audience is somehow confusing or inhibiting us, the solution is fairly obvious. We can ignore that audience altogether during the stages of writing and direct our words only to ourselves or to no one in particular--or even to the 'wrong' audience...This strategy often dissipates the confusion" (52.)

Although the writing that you produce, while ignoring your audience, may seem sloppy or not professor acceptable, remember that this is just a rough draft. The important part of this exercise is that it enables you to start writing!

I once had a professor that told me that I could never ever ever start a sentence with the word "So." So (take that!) it was all that I could think about while writing the paper. I worked so hard to write a paper without using "so" at all, that when it was done, it just didn't sound like me, and it also was a terrible paper. My heart wasn't in it, and the important message that I was trying to convey was lost in the disjointed "I'm trying to please my professor" style of writing.

That is when I decided that I should just forget about this professor and just write my paper. When I started writing with no one in mind, just writing to get what I wanted to say on the paper, everything went so much smoother.

I am a firm believer in the fact that audience is very important, but if you are struggling writing for that audience, I suggest that you take Elbow's advice and forget about it.

Once you get the writing done, you can go back and tweak your paper for your intended audience. Change some words if you have to or revise what you had written. Delete all those sentences that started with "So" and so on and so forth. Adjusting your voice, yourself, your ethos can be very hard to do, but it is not impossible. If you find you are struggling writing those start of the semester "getting comfortable" papers, just get self-centered and think of you. There is time to revise those written words, so become self-focused and write that bad boy ...  forget about that audience of blue hairs out there. Instead play to an audience of none.

Interested in reading Peter Elbow's totally rad article? See below for the citation.

Elbow, Peter. "Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience." 49.1 (1987) : 50-69. Print.

Pick me! I'm Awesome!

It's that time of year again - when the weather is bi-polar, New Year's resolutions are still in effect, bank accounts are rebounding from Christmas shopping sprees, and Personal Statements are written. Many of you are graduating this semester and have started applying to Graduate Schools or perhaps you are wistfully applying for jobs in anticipation of graduation. Either way, the Statement of Purpose is something that you may find yourself writing in both situations.

What exactly is a Statement of Purpose? Is it different than a cover letter? According to the Purdue Owl, the Personal Statement is, "...your opportunity to sell yourself in the application process". A Personal Statement can be thought of a Cover Letter beefed up on steroids. They are generally two-three pages long, and they sing your praises.

Well, ok. This sounds doable and easy enough, right? You've been writing ten to twelve page papers lately. Two-three pages will be cake right? Also, this is your chance to tell future employers or universities how smart and great you are and how you would be a fantastic fit to their community. Simple, stuff...yeah? Surprisingly, no. The Personal Statement can be one of the hardest pieces of writing that you may ever produce. Why is that? Why is writing about yourself in a positive light so hard?

Well, for starters more than likely you have been writing about everything ASIDE from yourself for a very long time. Perhaps you wrote about yourself in a personal narrative in your first-year writing class or maybe used a life story as an anecdote to add emotion to a paper (I drop that bomb quite often), but actually writing about your strengths, education, and life history with depth is probably something you haven't done in a super long time and may not feel comfortable doing. After all, it seems that most of us aren't out there in the world wearing sandwich boards touting our awesomeness. Should we be? Sometimes...and most definitely in the Personal Statement.

So, then how in the world do we write a Personal Statement that "sells you" but is humble at the same time? Well, for starters don't go flying into it blind. Don't try to rough draft this thing and see what happens. More than likely you will end up with a piece of text that you feel is inadequate and awkward. Instead of rushing in and writing first spend some time asking yourself some questions about  ...  yourself. On a piece of paper take the time to answer the following questions that the Purdue Owl suggests are helpful:

• What is special and impressive about your life story?
• When did you become interested in this field?
• What are your career goals?
• Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacles or hardships?
• What skills do you possess?
• What personal characteristics do you possess that make you a perfect fit?
• Why might you be a stronger candidate for grad school than other applicants?

Once you have answers to these questions, you may feel a bit more comfortable writing about yourself and may also have a good starting point. The first question--"What is special and impressive about your life story?"--could produce a funny or moving anecdote that would make for a fantastic introduction to your Personal Statement. After all, the first paragraph is the most important part of your Statement. In that very first paragraph, you will either snag your readers' attention or sadly lose it. The first paragraph sets the tone for the entire Personal Statement. So, really spend some time on your opener and make it something that your reader will understand and remember.

What do you do after a bad-ass opener? Easy. You simply tell them what you know! Which should be simple for you because your awesome, right? Isn't that what your sandwich board said? This is the place where you can get into the nitty-gritty of what you have learned about your area of expertise. Take some time to list classes that you have taken, conferences that you have presented at, work that you have done with other people in your field, or internships that you have been a part of at a school or organization. Just make sure that you are specific  ...  don't say something like, "I went to a conference in Florida, learned a lot and met a lot of people." Ugh. That's a bummer to read; plus it doesn't really tell me anything about you or the conference. How about instead saying something like, "I had the opportunity to present my research at the National I'm Awesome Conference in Florida in the spring of last year. During this time I met many people in the field and discovered that they too, are awesome." Although it may seem to you that you are padding your sentences or loading them up more than you need to do, don't think of it that way. Instead think of this as being extra specific in order to ensure that your reader knows and understands that you really know what you are talking about.

Some things NOT to do in your Personal Statement may seem obvious, but if I don't mention them I will worry all night long about it, and then I won't sleep--and I need my sleep. So, in order to ensure my future rest, please remember the following:

Not all subjects are Personal Statement appropriate. You should probably stay away from "hot button" or controversial topics. After all, you really don't know who might be reading your Personal Statement, and you don't want to offend them and then run the risk of your application being tossed to the side. Also, bringing up things that you accomplished in high school might not be appropriate for your personal statement. I know you're proud of being voted "Most Popular," but more than likely a college or future employer won't care about that.

Don't send off your Rough Draft. The Personal Statement needs to be as close to perfect as you can make it. Take the time to reread your draft, make changes, use spell check, and look closely for grammatical errors. Also, have a peer/parent/sibling/dog read over your Personal Statement for you and don't be afraid to make the changes that they suggest. Peer review is a powerful tool! If you don't have anyone close by that can help you, pop into your schools Writing Center. In the EIU Writing Center, we frequently assist people working on Personal Statements, and these clients recognize that sometimes writing needs a fresh set of eyes. And what better way to find out if you got the point of how awesome you are across by having someone who doesn't know you read your work?

Don't avoid researching your organization. Don't be afraid of research! Wait, what? Research for a Personal Statement? I know, it does seem silly because you should know all about you...right? However, it might help you to take the time to think about what sets your school of choice aside from other schools, or what is unique about your future place of employment. Do these unique factors relate to you? How? Write about it! This simple task may endear you to the reader of your Personal Statement because they will notice that you took some time to dig a little deeper about them, and that's love  ...  no?

Once in a while grad school or business applications ask specific questions for you to respond to in your Personal Statement. If this is the case, make sure that you know the format that the answers are required in. Sometimes the school or employer will simply want these answers woven into your statement, but once in a while these questions are considered supplemental to your Personal Statement and can be considered separate essays. It is always ok to call someone at the organization to clarify, and this ensures you will not make a silly mistake.

I know...this seems like a TON of writing....well, it is...but don't be discouraged! Slow down, think about the questions asked of you, and answer them as specifically as you can.

In short, what should you do while writing the Personal Statement? Talk to yourself, ask yourself questions, write responses  ...  several times if you have to so that you can get over that "I'm totally bragging about me!" feeling. Write an opening paragraph that the reader will remember you by; anecdotes or interesting stories about you are fantastic openers. Finally, remember to revise if needed! Find a peer and have them read your work, and take their suggestions.

Most importantly remember this, IT IS OK TO TALK ABOUT HOW AWESOME YOU ARE! The Personal Statement is your chance to brag about yourself and not have everyone think your an egotistical jerk! Get over the feeling of being a blow-hard bragger. The world won't know how great you are unless you tell them. Right?

Right.

Defeating The White Screen of Doom

It's that time again -- time to tackle a new semester with all that youthful, college vigor. Time to hit the ground running and dig into our studies with no regard for the outside world. Time to become one with the university --  no, with knowledge itself!

Yeah, right.

 Getting back into the swing of things can be a challenge for the best of us, and writing is no exception. If there's one thing that I dread more than any other, it's that initial moment where I sit down on the computer and pop open the word processor. I don't care if I've had a thousand ideas shooting through my head. It doesn't matter if I've wowed myself with seventeen different structurally-perfect arguments on this that or the other. When that first blinking cursor begins its maddening pulse, my hands freeze. My brain locks up. I'd swear that half the time I end up drooling on myself.

Fortunately the Evil White Screen has a few weaknesses.  As clever of a monster as it might be, it's also a coward.  You know that kid that beat you up in the lunch line because you thought you were a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and rubber-banded your first and last two fingers together?

(No?  No one?  Must just be me...)

Anyway, just like those school-yard bullies, the White Screen of Doom can't stand someone who stands up to them (unless, like me, your 'vicious right hook' hits about as hard as a limp-wristed kitten).  Here's the biggest weapon in your arsenal:


Give yourself permission to write poorly.


Right now.  Say it out loud.  I don't care that your roommate's cat is giving you a funny look.  The best way to get a project off the ground is to tell that inner editor to shut his gob.  Everyone has their own little critics.  Some of them are gentle whispers, guiding you along a more refined path, pointing out things that could be improved.  Others flay the skin off your back with flaming whips of self-deprecation with a sadistic fervor that would make the Balrog cringe.  


One of the things that paralyzes more writers than anything else is the fear that what they write will suck.  Guess what?  The first time around, it probably will.  There are probably two people in the entire galaxy who are capable of producing flawless text the first time, every time.  And those people better hope that none of us other writers find him or her, because we'd probably slice open their brains like jealousy-maddened zombies in a vain attempt to steal their powers.

Writing is just as much a reflective exercise as it is an art.  As we write, we're trying to take the abstract ideas floating around in our heads and transfer them in their most accurate form into the mind of the reader.  Odds are, you're not going to know exactly what you want to say when you sit down.  As you write, you'll figure it out.  You can always go back and give your sentences a cutesy little makeover once the words are on the screen.

It's pretty freaking hard to make white space academically appealing.

Now let me put a little context behind that statement.  I'm talking about rough drafts here.  Please don't roll your face against the keyboard and turn that in as your final product.  Obviously, you'll want to go back and think about what you've written.  However, that first step, that initial splatter of ideas onto the page is often times the most difficult part.  Heck, if you're anything like me, half the time your rough draft won't even be in complete sentences.  When I have an idea, I have to write it down nearly immediately or it slips through the cracks in my nose and vanishes underneath my dirty laundry pile.

Trust yourself.  Give those first initial thoughts some voice.  Every builder needs raw material to work with.  Writing is no different.

The Finale

Like any good tv show, this semester is coming to an end and it's almost time for the season finale. Will it end with a cliffhanger? Will your favorite character get cast off? Does the relationship end with question marks and polka dots? Does Dawson fall into the creek? Now is the time for our brains to run the marathon. We all know how awful people look when they run (it's just unnatural!), but we've got to plow through, red face and silly swishy-pants or not. Some people achieve a type of peace after they run for a prolonged period of time (I wouldn't know). That's what I've been trying to find. Now is the time for all of the final papers when it seems like my brain is just as barren as the cornfields that engulf me. Although the game is on, we've got to remain calm. Remember rule # 6. What is rule #6, you ask? Rule #6 is "Don't take yourself too seriously." What are all of the other rules, you ask? There aren't any. Just keep on truckin'.

On a semi-related topic:
After writing several millions of research papers, I've found a method that seems to generally work for me. First, I pick a topic. It is always something that I'm really interested in. If there isn't anything that you're interested in, make it into something that you are interested in. Be creative with it. Second comes the research. You don't need to have a thesis at this point, because chances are you don't know what you're going to say. You will most likely realize what you're going to say after you've read about what everyone else has said. I find all of my sources from the library and the interweb. Next, I read through my sources and take thorough notes on my computer. Be sure to include page numbers, works cited, and quotes within your notes so that the writing process is less difficult. Then, abra-cadabra! You formulate your thesis after reviewing your notes, outline, and write your paper! And you think to yourself 'What a wonderful world?'


DISCLAIMER: Also, please make sure to eat lots of brain food. If I'm working at school, I always make sure to have some change for my most-loved vending machine slot, D2 (not to be confused with the movie, which I also like). Finally, when you start seeing strange people coming out of your computer, talking to your computer, or find that your eyes haven't blinked in three hours, and possibly are physically not able to blink, take a break.

Before You Write (You Are A Coffeepot)

Before you write, there are some things that you can do to move along the process. One great example is TAKE A BREAK FROM WRITING ALL TOGETHER! Our brains are like coffeepots and you need to brew your idea before you get a nice steaming cup of coffee. Imagine if you didn't let your coffee brew. You might be drinking what really looks like a cup of mud. Before you write, go for a walk, do a little dance in your living room, spin around in a chair, anything! Give your brain time to connect the dots and clear your mind of it all together.

I've seen people dislike writing so much that they carry it with them wherever they go! They call it procrastination, but it's really more like dread. Give your brain a break and think about other things and before you know it, you'll be making connections that you never thought of before. It's wonderful! It's like magic! It's like dropping off your dry-cleaning! That pickle stain is all of the sudden gone and you don't want to know how it happened! You just accept the fact that it's gone and then you act like it was never there in the first place!

Do all of these pickle analogies have you down? Try it. Go for a walk instead of sitting in front of a blank screen. Ride a bicycle. Take your friend's neglected shih tzu for a walk. Fly a kite. Make a cup of joe and drink it, too.